CHAPTER VII. GREEK AS THE INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE OF PHYSICIANS AND SCHOLARS IN GENERAL.* All those who attend the international medi- cal congresses notice an unpleasant circum- stance, which becomes more and more marked with every succeeding assemblage. It is the inconvenience caused by the want of one lan- guage understood by all. There are some mem- bers who understand and fluently speak the offi- cial languages; they can easily take part in every debate, no matter which official language is used by the speakers. But few such members can be found ; the majority of the participants, and among them frequently some who are most prominent in their specialties, understand but one language, and thus lose about two-thirds of everything spoken during the meeting. They are often unable to enter upon the discussion of a question because they cannot understand the subject mentioned; and if they speak on some
- Read before the New York Academy of Medicine, March
15th, 1894.
